The Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) said 43 accidents involving delivery personnel were recorded in the city in 2025 and four workers were killed in these accidents. Speeding, use of mobile phone while driving, signal jumping and careless driving were the main reasons for these accidents.
A senior police officer said 536 people died in such accidents in Tamil Nadu in 2024, while the figure will come down to 496 in 2025, a decline of about 40 deaths. A resource person at the transport department said there were no specific details on the deaths of gig workers. He said guidelines from the Union Road Transport Ministry state that only the gender of the accident victim, location and the vehicle involved should be recorded in the records of the State Crime Records Bureau, and not his occupation.
talking to The HinduSalem district assistant commissioner of labor department said 280 gig workers are registered with the department in the district and two workers have received ₹20,000 as subsidy to buy e-scooters. “No accidents involving gig workers have been reported in the district in the last one year,” he said.
In Madurai district, trade unions complain that the very nature of the job of food delivery boys attached to various aggregators poses a risk to life and limb. Madurai district secretary of Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) R. “The risk is inherent because they are working for meager remuneration that is based on the number of deliveries made each day and within a short period of time,” says Lenin. Although the traffic police in Madurai city say that they keep encountering accidents with food delivery boys, there is no proper data available on this aspect. A police officer said, “Since two-wheelers are personal vehicles, the police could not differentiate between the vehicles of the food delivery boys involved in the accidents.”
Although CITU has a separate wing in Madurai – Tamil Nadu Food Delivery Boys Association – only 10 of them have enrolled with it. Its Assistant District Secretary, S. “The aggregators do not allow them any association with trade unions and the boys are not even aware of the benefits of joining trade unions,” Senthamaraikannan said.
The pressure of delivering food within the stipulated time keeps haunting the delivery boy. “How can one travel 3 km to 5 km within 10 minutes considering the traffic congestion,” he wondered. “They commit all kinds of violations, from signal jumping to entering one-way roads. Besides, they also ride on bikes and keep talking to customers on mobile phones in an attempt to trace the address,” says the police officer. Mr. Senthamaraikannan says that both of them can survive and think about their security only if their remuneration is increased.
In Erode district, police sources said no accidents involving gig workers were reported last year. District President of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) S. Chinnasamy said the Gig Workers Welfare Board, formed in 2023, has enrolled more than 220 workers in the district. “So far, none of the registered members have met with any accident,” he said.
45-50 gig workers to be killed in Andhra Pradesh by 2025
According to CITU state general secretary AV Nageswara Rao, at least 45 to 50 gig workers lost their lives in road accidents in major urban centers of Andhra Pradesh between January and December 2025, while over 200 others were injured.
The shocking figures, compiled through the support network of AP Gig Workers Welfare Unions in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur, underline the growing dangers faced by platform-based delivery workers and cab aggregator workers associated with companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Ola and Uber.
talking to The Hindu From Vijayawada, Mr Nageswara Rao said the victims were mainly unemployed youth and college students working hard shifts to make ends meet. Despite repeated representations to the state government and the labor department to highlight the precarious working conditions and lack of institutional safety net, concrete legislative interventions are absent.
Union leaders say intense algorithmic pressures, relentless delivery deadlines, and the absence of comprehensive social security or statutory welfare measures leave grieving families and injured workers without adequate institutional support or compensation.
deaths in karnataka
According to data from Karnataka government sources, seven platform-based gig workers are expected to die in fatal road accidents in the state in 2025 (till November). The numbers show an increasing trend, with three deaths recorded in 2024 and two deaths in 2023.
The number of non-fatal road accidents in 2025 was 13, a significant jump compared to no cases recorded in 2023 and three in 2024.
However, unofficial figures suggest a much higher number. Mohammed Inayat Ali, president of the Karnataka App-Based Workers Union, said, “Last year, at least 50 platform workers died on the road in accidents in Karnataka. From our union alone, 10 members lost their lives in such incidents last year.”
Vinay Sarathi, president of the United Food Delivery Partners Union, says bad roads full of potholes and long hours of civil work often prove to be the villain for gig workers, who are constantly rushing to fulfill orders. “The stress of work to deliver orders quickly is a major cause of accidents,” he says.
Many delivery personnel use low-speed electric vehicles (LSVEs) to complete deliveries. The condition of some of these vehicles is doubtful. “Some LSVE providers, who have partnered with instant commerce platforms, tamper with the speed settings. While the legally mandated maximum speed of such vehicles should be 25 kmph, they have set it at around 40 kmph to facilitate faster deliveries. At times, this leads to accidents for workers who do not have any protective gear,” alleges Mr Ali.
Driving rashly or recklessly makes things worse. Mr Ali points to the case of a Quick Commerce delivery worker who was killed in a hit-and-run incident after he was hit by a speeding water tanker near Sarjapur on July 12. The Karnataka government’s insurance scheme for gig workers provides a compensation of ₹4 lakh on accidental death. Industry sources say that although many insurance claims have been approved and disbursed, the registration numbers are relatively low. “Many workers are migrants living with friends or colleagues in the city. In the event of an accident, unions often find it difficult to contact their families or facilitate insurance claims because basic details are not available,” says Mr Ali.
More than 30 died in Kerala
More than 30 gig workers, mostly food delivery workers, have died in road accidents across Kerala last year, according to unofficial data compiled by the Kerala State Gig and Platform Workers Union (CITU). There were 16 such deaths in Thiruvananthapuram and 11 in Ernakulam. According to the union, the data was collected after several fatal accidents, including two deaths that occurred in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram on July 9.
The death of delivery workers, who are often the breadwinners for their families, leaves their relatives in immense emotional and financial distress. Relatives of Sunilkumar, a 44-year-old delivery worker who was crushed to death by a bus in Kochi recently, say the company that employed him has claimed to have initiated procedures to receive his insurance claim. However, union leaders say victims often do not receive proper compensation, including life insurance money.
Gig workers say they are forced to compromise on road safety due to a number of factors including incentive targets, delays in remittances and customer pressure.
Around 1500 accidents in Telangana
Telangana-based gig worker unions say road accidents involving app-based drivers and delivery personnel have become a growing concern, with an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 accidents involving gig and platform workers recorded in the state in the past one year.
According to Sheikh Salauddin, founder-president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), five to six of these accidents proved fatal, although the actual death toll may be higher as not all incidents are reported to the unions. Mr Salauddin said that in cases known to the unions, both the platform companies and the Telangana government provided compensation of ₹5 lakh to the families of the deceased workers. He said that accidents are continuously making workers and their families unsafe. Citing a recent case, he said a gig worker is undergoing treatment at a private hospital after a road accident whose medical expenses have already reached ₹5 lakh, while alleging that the platform company has not provided any financial assistance.
The union estimates that there are around 4 lakh gig and platform workers in Telangana, of which around 90% are concentrated in Hyderabad and its surrounding areas. Mr Salauddin said employee safety concerns have also prompted unions to campaign against the 10-minute delivery timelines introduced by some quick-commerce platforms. “Such delivery deadlines force workers to walk fast amid traffic, increasing the risk of road accidents. The issue was highlighted during nationwide protests by gig workers last year, after which the central government took note of the concerns,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Telangana App-Based Drivers Forum (TADF) held a roundtable meeting in Hyderabad on July 15, expressing concern over declining earnings, rising cuts and persistent delays in implementing welfare measures for gig and platform workers. The platform declared a statewide strike on July 22 and threatened an indefinite strike after August 5 if the demands remained unresolved, saying that repeated memorandums to the Telangana government and the platform companies had yielded no concrete action.
Its demands include immediate revision of fares per kilometre, per minute and per order, fare hike to ensure sustainable income, ending excessive commissions and cuts by IT companies and cab vendors, action against unauthorized vendors and commercial operations involving vehicles registered in other states, immediate notification of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Rules, constitution of Gig and Platform Workers Welfare Board, and mandatory consultation with representatives of workers before policy decisions affecting the sector.
Lack of support for gig workers
Recently, the Parliamentary Committee on Labor noted that the Union Labor Ministry could not operationalize the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) till March 31, 2022. The ex-gratia module was launched later in August 2023, and the decision of approval or rejection was under the jurisdiction of state governments. The Committee expressed concern and noted that, as of February 18, 2025, out of 702 claims (474 in 2023-24 and 228 in 2024-25) approved by the District Magistrate/District Collector, only 501 (330 in 2023-24 and 171 in 2024-25) have been paid to claimants and the remaining 201 claimants Are. Due to administrative/procedural reasons the ex-gratia amount has not been paid yet. “The Committee is of the view that the very purpose of any social security scheme is defeated if the ex-gratia amount is not paid to the claimant on time,” the report said.
(AM Jigish with inputs from the Bureau)
